CNG CNR 2016 03

Anglo-Danish Coinage

By Bill Dalzell Collectors of English hammered coinage have a vast and varied field before them. In addition to the exceptionally well studied Anglo-Saxon, Norman, and later coinages, collectors can expand into more peripheral areas, such as Scotland, Ireland, and the Anglo-Gallic territories. But there is one closely related area that perhaps has not received quite the attention from British collectors that it deserves – the coinage of Scandinavia and Denmark in the 11th century.

England and the Danes Ties between England and Denmark originated in the late 8th century, with the earliest Viking raids on Lindisfarne in 793.

These raids would become a permanent facet of Anglo-Saxon life, and soon increased in both frequency and ferocity, culminating in the establishment of a Viking kingdom in Northumbria. The Danes in York were temporarily subdued and raiding ceased following the unification of England under Æthelstan of Wessex, but attacks resumed after the monarch’s death. By 991, the English and their king Æthelred found themselves unable to compete militarily with the Danes and initiated a new policy of paying the Viking raiders directly, rather than allowing them to take by force. This protection money, known as the Danegeld, resulted in the transfer of vast amounts of silver coin into Scandinavia.

The silver Danegeld served only to buy time for the English. Another massive Viking invasion commenced in 1013, when forces under Danish king Sven Forkbeard swept through the country, forcing the capitulation and exile of Æthelred. Sven died before he was able to consolidate his holdings. Both Danish occupiers and English nobles acclaimed Cnut King of England, but some of the English dissented and supported Æthelred. In 1016, before any military conclusion to the conflict could be reached, Cnut’s opponents were dealt a crippling blow with the sudden death of their candidate Æthelred. The two parties crafted a treaty, leaving Cnut with control of the northern lands, while Edmund, the son of Æthelred, retained control of Wessex. Edmund himself would die after only a few months, leaving Cnut as King of All England. Through a series of further timely deaths and skillful political maneuvers, Cnut further expanded his holdings, claimed the throne of Denmark in 1019, following the death of his brother Harald, and conquered Norway in 1029, after defeating Norwegian King Olaf. He claimed at least partial rule over Sweden following the battle of Helgeå in 1026.

Cnut’s amalgamation of kingdoms, often referred to as the North Sea Empire, brought a great increase in trade and commerce between England and Denmark, but could not outlast the charismatic monarch. On Cnut’s death in 1035, the so-called empire fragmented. Norway, for some time a restive part of the empire, expelled the Danish occupiers, giving the throne to Magnus, son of the deposed King Olaf. The English and Danish thrones were divided between Cnut’s sons: England went to Harold Harefoot and Denmark to Harthacnut, who had there been acclaimed joint king before his father died. This division between the two kings was quite contentious. Harthacnut prepared an invasion force to take his brother’s kingdom by force, but Harold died before it set sail, and the kingdom of England passed to Harthacnut without bloodshed. Meanwhile, back in Scandinavia, Magnusa and Harthacnut agreed that the two kingdoms would be united under whichever monarch outlived the other.

Magnus proved to be the heartier of the two, and was crowned king of Denmark following the death of Harthacnut in England in 1042. But a peaceable transition was not achieved. Sweyn Estridsen, nephew of Cnut and regent of Denmark in Harthacnut’s absence, opposed Magnus and in 1044 Denmark fell into a civil war known as the stridsperioden that lasted until the Magnus’ death in 1047. Though Magnus had intended to retake England and restore Cnut’s empire, the civil war with Sweyn prevented any action in this direction, and no later Danish monarch would again take the English throne.

Coinage Coinage in Denmark is intimately tied with the history of Viking activities in England as well as on the continent. The earliest coins found in the region are ‘Abbasid and Carolingian issues carried back north by raiders and mercenaries. Minting in Scandinavia began in the 9th or 10th century, with wholly native designs, followed by an issue of Harald Blåtand (Harold Bluetooth) from Hebedy which copied Carolingian issues of Dorestad.

Coins begin being struck en masse in after 991, influenced by Æthelred’s enormous Danegeld payments. The types primarily copy Æthelred’s Long Cross type and were struck at as-yet uncertain mints in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Unlike the well-organized English coinage, these ad-hoc imitations bear no indication of mint or moneyer, with legends ranging from direct copies citing English mints and officials to crude gibberish. Deeper understanding of the series has only been attained through a detailed examination of the dies used to strike the coinage, linking obverses and reverses together in long chains.

Based on these chains, Malmer (citation) suggests at least three minting regions: a Northern area, a Southern area, and an uncertain ‘Southern or Northern’ area. The vast majority of these issues appear to be struck before circa 1020.

At the same time as these imitations were being produced, the kings of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden each produced extremely rare issues bearing their own names and mint signatures. Coins of Olaf Tryggvason of Norway, Olof Sköltonung of Sweden, and Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark are each known in extremely limited numbers. Interestingly, the coins of Svend can be shown through die links to be related to seemingly English issues naming York mint. As the find spots are centered in Scandinavia, it has been suggested that the dies were taken from York and utilized in Denmark, possibly at Lund.

The true flowering of Scandinavian coinage begins under Cnut. When Cnut gained control of England, he also gained control over the most advanced coinage system in Western Europe at the time. Silver pennies were struck in great quantity, signed by 4